Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramoun

Question

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Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramount  Pictures, accumulate  tangled lists of owners and corporate relations.

A) Pictures, accumulate

B) Pictures, had accumulated

C) Pictures and have accumulated

D) Pictures, accumulates

E) Pictures, have accumulated

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION THE PROMPT Some words or phrases in English signal specific verb tenses. This question contains one such phrase: Since the 1920s . Know that is a clue that we probably need present perfect verb tense, which bridges past and present. We construct present perfect this way: HAS/HAVE + past participle (verbED) Present perfect connects events that started in the past that continue into the present (or whose effects continue into the present) Using present perfect have accumulated indicates that the accumulation began in the past and is continuing into the present moment. I've written a few posts about the fact that since + _____ (point in time) almost always requires present perfect. One such post is here /u] THE OPTIONS -- present tense accumulate does not account for "since the 1920s." Compare these two sentences: Since I was 15 years old, I know him.

Since I was 15 years old, I have known him.

ELIMINATE A -- Past perfect tense had accumulated is not warranted. Past perfect signals the earlier of two events in the past or a hypothetical statement. -- We say, "When the war ended in Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians had lost their lives." One event must be rendered in simple past tense ("ended") or there must be a time stamp that signals the later-in-time event; otherwise, past perfect cannot be used. No previous event is rendered in simple past tense. This sentence does not involve two past events; the earlier event continues into the present. ELIMINATE B -- the word and implies that the subject has done something else -- the sentence is missing a second verb ELIMINATE C -- same problems as those in (A), and -- plural subject studios does not agree with singular verb accumulates ELIMINATE D -- by POE, this answer is correct -- The phrase Since the 1920s means that we need a verb that starts in the past and extends into the present. have accumulated is called present perfect (HAS/HAVE + past participle verbED) -- This option's answer correctly uses have accumulated to bridge past present. The answer is E. COMMENTS Skaa , karnavora1 , YuvarajUmapathi , vipulshahi , welcome to SC Butler.

I am always glad to see new people posting. (Remember: aspirants have a standing invitation to join in.) Of course I am also glad to see "veterans" posting. These answers range from satisfactory to very good. When I ask for good explanations, I mean: can someone not familiar with all these jargon-y words read your answer and understand? If not, you need to explain a little bit. Most of you are new. Today I will award kudos even if I think explanatory power is a little lacking. Aspirants who come later learn a lot from your explanations. Happy Kudos.

Skaa · Answer

Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramount Pictures, accumulate tangled lists of owners and corporate relations.

This is a straight sentence that tests tense usage.

The word 'since' is used to present the starting point of an action that continues in the present and takes the usage of present perfect or present perfect continuous tense verb.

Keeping this in mind, we can easily eliminate option A and D.
 
Option B can be eliminated because it uses past perfect tense.

The use of 'and' in C creates an unnecessary fragment, leaving the first half of the sentence dangling without a verb.

Option E uses ' have accumulated ' that implies that the event is ongoing

OA : E

vipulshahi · Answer

Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramount  Pictures, accumulate  tangled lists of owners and corporate relations.

Lets analyse each & every part of the sentence.

* Subject Verb Pair    
-Subject verb pair is seems okay.

* Tense Form    
- Tense form used is correct but "Since the 1920s" is used in the sentence then " have accumulated" will be used.

* If-then condition  - Not used

* Subjunctive Verb  - Not used

* Pronoun  - Not used

* Modifier    
- "including Paramount Pictures" correctly modifies "studios".

* Parallelism   
- owners & corporate relations are connected properly

* Comparison  - Not used

* Idioms  - not used.

While analyzing whole sentence, we come to know that only error is in tense form.

A) Pictures,   accumulate

- "Since" is used so " have accumulated" will be preferred.

- Incorrect 
 
B) Pictures,   had   accumulated

- usage of " had" changed the meaning

- Incorrect 
 
C) Pictures   and   have accumulated

- removes the tense form error but introduced the word "and" which is incorrect in terms of subject verb pair.

- Incorrect
  
D) Pictures,   accumulates

- "accumulates" distort the meaning

- Incorrect 
 
E) Pictures, have accumulated
 
- removes the tense form error

- Correct

IMO(E)

FauleKatze · Answer

Since  the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramount  Pictures, accumulate  tangled lists of owners and corporate relations.

Since indicates present perfect must be used in the sentence. 
A) Pictures,   accumulate   -> Not present perfect

B) Pictures,   had   accumulated-> Past perfect

C) Pictures   and have   accumulated -> creates fragment

D) Pictures,   accumulates   -> not present perfect

E) Pictures, have accumulated -> correct

karnavora1 · Answer

Very good example of Tenses.
Whenever you see a sentence like "Since 1940 or Since the 1920s" you should understand that the sentence will use the Present Perfect or in a simple way "has/have+verd 'ed'"

Here, it should be "have + accumulated"
Hence we are left with only C and E.

In C the use of "and" is wrong - Just read it once, "Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramount Pictures and have accumulated"
What is "and" trying to connect here?

Hence option "E" is correct

Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramount Pictures, accumulate tangled lists of owners and corporate relations.

A) Pictures,  accumulate

B) Pictures,  had accumulated

C) Pictures  and  have accumulated

D) Pictures,  accumulates

E) Pictures,  have accumulated

YuvarajUmapathi · Answer

Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramount Pictures, accumulate tangled lists of owners and corporate relations.

IMO E

A) Pictures, accumulate
 "accumulate " - Present tense doesn't match with the timeline 1920. Hence eliminate

B) Pictures, had accumulated
 Usage of past perfect "accumulated" is incorrect because of only one event mentioned in the sentence. hence eliminate

C) Pictures and have accumulated
 Here "and" split the sentence into two clauses. In the first clause, S-V pair is missing. hence eliminate

D) Pictures, accumulates
 "accumulates " - Present tense doesn't match with the timeline 1920 and also with the subject. Hence eliminate

E)  Pictures, have accumulated 
 "have accumulated" - Present perfect correctly match with the timeline from 1920. to till date.

jaisonsunny77 · Answer

Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramount  Pictures, accumulate  tangled lists of owners and corporate relations.
 
Since we have a time frame for this statement, this statement can be considered as true/valid since the 1920's. For this reason, we must use the present perfect verb structure.

Since (A), (B), and (D) do not have the past perfect verb form,   eliminate (A), (B), and (D).

C) Pictures and have accumulated  -  (C) introduces the following sentence structure: "Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios,..... ". (C) therefore introduces an incomplete sentence (since the whole -ing clause ''including....corporate relations'' now becomes a modifier clause. Therefore, the main clause does does not have a full verb).

E) Pictures, have accumulated - has no error. Hence,  (E) is the right answer choice.

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramoun

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Since the 1920s, most major motion picture studios, including Paramoun

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